ROME: Captain Mauro Icardi struck a dramatic injury-time winner as Inter Milan stunned AC Milan 1-0 in the city derby at the San Siro to retake third place in Serie A on Sunday but they could be left counting the cost of that victory after key midfielder Radja Nainggolan limped off in the first half.
Nainggolan hurt his ankle in a crunching tackle with Lucas Biglia in the first half. The Belgian midfielder will undergo tests on Monday but is now a doubt for Wednesday’s Champions League match at Barcelona. Forward Ivan Perisic went off in the second half, while midfielder Marcelo Brozovic could also miss the trip to Barcelona, with both players having right thigh injuries.
“I’m not worried because I have an important squad,” Inter coach Luciano Spalletti said. “It will be difficult for them to recover though. I will change some players for the Barcelona match because everyone has to feel involved in our journey, otherwise we can’t reach our aims.”
Inter have made a habit this season of scoring late goals and they did so for the fifth game this campaign when Icardi headed in Matias Vecino’s cross.
“You can’t explain these feelings. I can only say it’s utter joy. Winning like this, with my goal right at the end, it’s really impossible to explain,” Icardi said. “But we should have finished off the match earlier in order not to suffer, us and the fans. But we did it. We’ve kept up our positive run. Now we need to continue.”
It was Inter’s seventh successive win in all matches and saw them cut the gap to leader Juventus to six points. Milan remain down in 12th after seeing their eight-game unbeaten run in all competitions ended.
“We took a step back in technical terms but we took a step forward mentally,” Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso said. “Inter did something more than us, they deserved the win, but our performance is not something to throw away. I really liked the team’s attitude. There are so many positive things to take from this match ... The regret comes from the last 15 minutes, when the match was more open ... we could have done better.”
Icardi had the ball in the net early on, but the striker’s effort was ruled out for offside after a check with VAR.
Although the opening stages of the game were not overflowing with attacking quality, there was plenty of niggle, with Biglia left incensed after he was booked despite appearing to have been stamped on by Nainggolan before the Belgian hobbled off.
Nominal home side Inter looked the more likely to find a breakthrough in the first half, with Perisic seeing a header palmed away by Gianluigi Donnarumma and Stefan de Vrij striking the crossbar with a twisting volley.
Out of nowhere Milan thought they had taken the lead shortly before half-time, but it was Mateo Musacchio’s turn to be denied by the linesman’s flag.
Inter had a couple of second-half chances from set-pieces, with Vecino nodding over and Perisic seeing a thunderous strike blocked.
The game appeared to be petering out into a goalless draw, but Donnaruma came and failed to claim a speculative right-wing cross from Vecino, and Icardi headed into the unguarded net to score his fourth league goal of the campaign and spark jubilant scenes among the Inter fans in the stands.
Earlier on Sunday, late goals from Ciro Immobile and Joaquin Correa gave Lazio a 2-0 win at Parma.
Promoted in each of the three seasons since their bankruptcy, Parma have impressed this season but their late capitulation saw the visiting Roman outfit into the top four.
Ex-Italy boss Gian Piero Ventura returned to coaching but failed to guide tailenders Chievo Verona to their first win of the season.
Relegation rivals Atalanta ripped Chievo apart in a 5-1 home mauling for Ventura in his first game since being sacked last November after Italy failed to reach the World Cup finals for the first time since 1958.
Two other clubs also locked in the relegation zone shared the points as Frosinone and Empoli drew 3-3 in a game where Frosinone doubled their season’s goals tally to six and their points tally to two.
Bologna remained two points above Empoli after coming back from two goals down to draw 2-2 against Torino.
Elsewhere, Fiorentina drew 1-1 at home to Cagliari.
Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2018
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